


Comical Misunderstandings and Newfound Stimulants

by raspberryghoulaid



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Community - Freeform, First Kiss, Idiots in Love, M/M, Trobed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:35:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26961508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raspberryghoulaid/pseuds/raspberryghoulaid
Summary: The one where Abed recieves a gift from Annie, and Troy's the one affected by it the most.
Relationships: Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir
Comments: 10
Kudos: 153





	Comical Misunderstandings and Newfound Stimulants

Annie first gives them to him as a birthday gift, wrapped in a pastel purple box and sealed with an obnoxiously shiny pink bow, in typical Annie fashion. They’re sitting on the countertop next to the blueberry pancakes she’d made him, also a birthday contribution from her, and he furrows his brow in confusion when he unwraps the transparent plastic frames. “They’re bluelight glasses,” Annie explains. “They’re supposed to help reduce eye strain from staring at a screen, I thought they could help you with those awful headaches you get after editing for too long.” 

“Cool,” He smiles at her. “Cool, cool, cool.” 

After that day, he rarely ever takes them off. He wears them while marathoning all of the _Kickpuncher_ movies in a row, he wears them while editing a film for his film class that he just can’t seem to perfect (he blames it on poor choice of student actors), and over time his headaches seem to dull and he’s able to fall asleep without this restless feeling in his brain. He keeps them on hand at all times, placing them carefully on his nightstand before falling asleep and slipping them into his bag when he heads off to school. 

Jeff asks him if they’re some kind of Clark Kent reference he’s not getting, and Britta rolls her eyes at the older man and says they look good on him. Abed is sure he hears the word _gay_ muttered under Pierce’s breath before Shirley is glaring at him, and Troy, Troy doesn’t say anything about them, but Abed catches his best friend stealing glances at him when he thinks Abed’s not paying attention. 

_Maybe he thinks they’re ugly_ , something inside his brain nags at him one day, when he’s sitting in the study room with his friends working on a homework assignment on his laptop, glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. _Maybe he thinks you look like a dork, maybe he thinks you're unattractive now_ . His gaze flickers to Troy, who’s laughing at something Jeff said that Abed had missed while engrossed in his thoughts, and his heart hurts a little bit from the notion. Could Troy really not like them? Did he think Abed was unattractive now? Had he ever thought Abed was attractive _before_? 

He closes his laptop, takes the glasses off and slips them into his bag, and when Annie catches his eye, there’s visible question in her brown irises, but Abed smiles it off and turns his attention to Jeff, who’d just suggested to the group that maybe it’s time they’d closed the books for now and got some dinner. (Everyone agrees on Dennys, obviously.)

Later that night, he’s sitting in the living room and editing his latest project for his film class when Troy wanders into the kitchen looking for something to drink. It’s three in the morning, and Abed had intentionally worked on his project out here so as not to wake the other boy, because he knows Troy’s first class is at eight and he needed the sleep. There’s no tiredness in Troy’s expression, however, as he grabs the milk from the fridge and sets it on the counter along with two glasses he’d nabbed from the cabinet. “You’re supposed to be asleep.” Abed says without looking up from his computer. There’s a clinking sound of metal against glass as Troy stirs packets of hot chocolate powder into the glasses of milk he’d poured, sliding one across the countertop to Abed when he was finished. Abed accepts it wordlessly, still waiting for the other boy to say something, _anything_ to let him know that Troy wasn’t completely repelled by him. 

“So are you,” Troy responds, leaning against the counter as he brings the glass of special drink to his lips. “What are you working on?”

“A project for class,” Abed tells him, turning the screen to face the other boy. “It’s supposed to be a documentary about the history of Greendale, although I might have to redo it and pick another subject, turns out the history of Greendale is a pretty tedious one, not much viewer appeal.” 

Troy laughs. “Yea, I’m sure there’s a long line of people just fired up to see _that_.” Abed doesn’t recognize the sarcasm in Troy’s voice until the other boy smirks at him, and it lifts some of the weight off of his shoulders. Troy turns to put his now emptied glass in the sink, and then Abed thinks he’s going back to bed until Troy moves to slide into the seat next to him, their arms brushing against each other. Abed thinks of taking the glasses off, then maybe Troy will come even _closer_ , where Abed so desperately wants him to be but has convinced himself that _this just isn't the right timeline_. He takes them off anyways, lays them on the counter and continues to work on his documentary with the acceptance that no matter how uninteresting it may be there wasn’t really any time to start a new one. 

“Why’d you take them off?” Troy asks him then, and Abed’s fingers freeze above the keyboard. He doesn’t really have any excuses prepared, none that he knows the other boy won’t see right through immediately, anyways. 

“Because I know you don’t like them.” Abed answers, turning to face his best friend. 

“Who told you that?”

“You did,” Abed replies without falter. “Well, never directly. You just never said anything about them when everyone else did, as if you _didn’t_ want to say something. After that I just assumed you didn’t like them.” 

“Abed,” Troy clears his throat, shifting in his seat so he’s parallel to the other boy, their knees knocking against one another. “I don’t-that was not what I wanted to make you think, ever. I just didn’t-I mean, I…..” Troy trips over his words, and takes a deep breath to collect himself before continuing. “I didn’t want to accidentally let everyone else know how _hot_ I thought you looked in them.” It comes out as a whisper, and Troy’s hiding his face in his hands now.

Abed blinks, takes a moment to process his best friend’s words. “Oh,” He says, feeling heat blossom in his cheeks. “ _Oh_.” 

“I’m sorry if that weirds you out, and if you don’t wanna be friends anymore I get that, too.” Troy mumbles from behind his hands.

“Troy,” Abed wraps his fingers around the other boy’s, pulls his hands away from his face and smiles. Troy’s eyes widen, and Abed uses their conjoined hands to pull him closer.

Troy exhales shakily, and Abed can feel the warmth of it graze his face. “Is this real?” 

“I hope so,” Abed responds. “I’ve done a lot of timeline evaluation, and while it is highly improbable that we could form a relationship in this timeline without ruining our already established friendship, it’s not impossible. In fact, in timeline-” He doesn’t get to finish, because Troy is kissing him suddenly, and Abed’s words die in his throat. He kisses back without hesitance, winds his arms around Troy’s neck as the other boy’s hands find his waist. It’s clumsy, and reckless, and Abed doesn’t really expect anything more from their first kiss, but even so, it’s substantially better than anything he could’ve composed in the Dreamatorium (which he’ll never admit to doing). 

They kiss many more times that night; in the kitchen, in the living room while deciding to put on _Blade_ instead of going back to sleep right away, and in the blanket fort when they eventually do, both of them wedged into the bottom bunk together with Troy’s arms wrapped around Abed as he presses chaste kisses to his forehead, lips, and cheek with tender affection. “Just so you know, I think you’re pretty hot without the glasses, too.” Troy tells him softly, planting a final kiss to Abed’s hair. Abed beams, tucks himself into Troy’s body and buries his face in the other boy’s chest to conceal his blush. He muses over all of the new simulations to render in the Dreamatorium, all of the new relationship tropes to try out, and overall, he lingers over the revelation that _Troy Barnes thinks he’s hot_ , and it’s enough to send him to sleep with a smile on his face.


End file.
